Had a lovely time performing two acoustic sets at Reepham Festival. Such a lovely friendly festival. On Saturday I performed in the Church and was accompanied by Jonathan Threadwell on electric guitar. I wrote about my first time playing at this lovely festival and all my other recent music news in my latest column for All Things Norfolk.

On Sunday I performed at the historic Whitwell station.

Next gig is this special celebration of Breeze Redwine’s debut EP ‘Trust’ which has been earning airplay on BBC Introducing:

My incredibly talented student Breeze Redwine continues to record really great original songs and has just released her debut EP ‘Trust’. I’m proud to have written the title track with her and it’s just received it’s first airplay on BBC Introducing. DJ Jay Lawrence said what a song it is and described Breeze as ‘absolutely talented beyond her years’.

I’m excited to be joining her at a very special gig celebrating the release of ‘Trust’. 31st August at The Garage, Norwich.

Had a wonderful gig this week as part of A Night In Nashville supporting three wonderful Nashville based songwriters Sarah Darling, Jenn Bostic and Michael Logen. I was joined by the brilliant dobro player Noel Dashwood who features on the latest EP. The artists were so warm and inspiring and their version of ‘Jolene’ is a real goosebumps moment.

Thanks to Norwich Music Blog by Richard Shashamané for the lovely photos and great review:

Lisa played a lovely set of Americana flavoured songs with stories of “what might have been” gently and sensitively accompanied by Noel. The storytelling of the songs and Lisa’s pure and emotive voice was a real pleasure to listen to.

I preview the concert and also the Norfolk and Norwich Festival in my latest music column for All Things Norfolk

The Show page has also been updated to include my upcoming festival appearances at Buckle and Boots Festival in Manchester and Reepham Festival. Sarah Darling and Jenn Bostic will also be performing at Buckle and Boots, a festival celebrating country music, as well as many other other renowned country artists.

My column on #Crowdfunding a creative project features in the new Spring issue of Songwriting Magazine. Cover star is Sheryl Crow. You can order the magazine here

Huge thanks to Basement Tapes for creating this beautiful pendant for me! Including my used Taylor guitar strings, it follows on from my personalised necklace. They’re both available to order via their website.

Had a fun day performing an acoustic set for Record Store Day at Vinyl Hunter in Suffolk. It’s always a great day celebrating independent record shops and excellent bands Saltfen and SIAH also performed.

Really excited to hear that I’m a Semi-Finalist in the renowned International Songwriting Competition with ‘Courage’ a song I wrote and performed beautifully by Breeze Redwine. It’s judged by artists such as Bastille, Lorde, Donovan, Chris Cornell, Ziggy Marley, Tom Waits, Keane, Ryan Bingham and Rickie Lee Jones while previous winners include Passenger, Bastille, Kimbra and Vance Joy. Wow!

New videos, playing Sam Outlaw’s ‘Country Love Song’

‘Doomsday’ by Ryan Adams. Also my recent live review of his intimate Rough Trade gig has been added to Songwriting Magazine.

Also playing one of my favourite songs, Neil Young’s lovely ‘Tell Me Why’ from the wonderful ‘After the Goldrush’

Am all recovered from a great couple of days at the AMA-UK Conference and Awards and my review about my inspiring time there is in the Columns section of the site. Also been playing this sweet song from winning of Best International Album, Sam Outlaw and ‘Country Love Song.’

Another one of my songs from the EP ‘Music and the Mountains’ is on this lovely Americana compilation, The House Concert 8th Birthday Collection from Medicine Show Records and available on BandCamp.

Huge thanks to Basement Tapes for creating this beautiful bracelet for me! Made from my used Taylor guitar strings it’s one of their stunning Artist bracelets. It’s available to order via their website and I’ve been proudly wearing it every since!

Another compilation that I’m proud to feature on, charity release ‘A World of Hope’ from Postcards for Peace will be officially released on March 10th. You can also order it now here.

It’s been really cool to start the year enjoying some exceptional music. I was lucky to be among an intimate crowd getting to see Ryan Adams preview brand new material from his upcoming album ‘Prisoner’ at Rough Trade East. His new songs are amazing and I love single ‘To Be Without You’ so much I’ve recorded an acoustic cover of it:

Also in my music columnist role I’ve had a fun couple of days enjoying the AMA UK Conference and Awards. Met so many wonderful people all celebrating Americana music. The conference had some great panels and a fascinating conversation between Bob Harris and wonderful songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter.

Some shots from a great time Breeze and I had filming for BBC Look East. Cool to see some close ups of my Baby Taylor! Thanks so much to the BBC for putting together such a lovely festive video for our performance.

The performance is now on iPlayer and YouTube:

Thanks so much to Art of the Song for making ‘When Christmas Comes Around’ ‘Song of the Day’. I was also just interviewed for their excellent podcast following on from One Republic’s Ryan Tedder. Talking music, songwriting & more in detail here. Thanks for listening xx

My article on ways to do a cover song creatively is in the new winter edition of Songwriting Magazine. Tons of features and interviews including the excellent Billy Bragg and the art of the protest song. Plus The Lumineers, Katie Melua, Tom Chaplin, Wild Beasts, punk and more. Something to cool to read over the festive period, you can order it here

Thanks so much to all the radio shows for supporting the festive single and to everyone for getting it, really means such a lot xx